Sharon Bottoms fights again for her son

Rekindling a protracted legal fight for her child, Sharon Bottoms
today returned to a Virginia courtroom fighting to preserve her
family after it was shattered by a court decision that took away her
son because she is a lesbian.

Bottoms is appealing a state circuit court decision that forbids
any contact whatsoever between her five-year-old son, Tyler Doustou,
and her life partner, April Wade. Under the judge's August 1996
order, Wade is strictly prohibited from seeing or talking to Tyler,
even by telephone. The order also bars Bottoms from ever visiting
with Tyler outside her home.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Bottoms,
presented oral argument to the Virginia Court of Appeals that the
lower court's restrictions on Wade are unconstitutionally based on
prejudice, and that visitation with Tyler should be expanded to
preserve the family. The ACLU also cited uncontroverted evidence from
a psychologist who said the current arrangement is harmful to Tyler.

"The lower court's visitation order hurts everyone, especially
Tyler," said Donald K. Butler, a cooperating attorney with the ACLU
of Virginia, who argued the case. "It is bad enough that Sharon had
her child taken away just because she is a lesbian. But this order
literally prohibits Sharon from even walking down the street with her
own son. To top it off, the court offered no reason for ripping apart
this family except that Sharon and April are lesbians."

In a 1993 ruling, a Virginia court took Tyler away from Bottoms
and transferred custody to Tyler's maternal grandmother, Pamela Kay
Bottoms. The court based its ruling on the belief that a lesbian is
never fit to be a parent, despite a mountain of social research
showing that the children of gay parents grow up as successfully as
the children of heterosexual parents. (for research overview, see
ACLU fact sheet on Lesbian and Gay Parenting.)

The decision was overturned on appeal, only to be reinstated in
April 1995 by the Virginia Supreme Court. The majority opinion, which
sharply divided the court, said that Tyler might suffer increased
stigma as a result of having a lesbian mother -- a claim which again
has been consistently rejected by social research. The state high
court also indirectly invoked Virginia's criminal sodomy statute,
suggesting that a lesbian is less fit to be a mother because she
commits illegal acts.

After fighting the custody order for more than three years,
Bottoms finally decided in August 1996 to drop the custody battle and
focus on visitation. Under the initial 1993 ruling by Henrico County
Circuit Judge Buford M. Parsons Jr., Wade was not allowed to be
physically present during Tyler's visits, although she could maintain
contact with Tyler by telephone. The ruling also forbade Tyler from
visiting with Bottoms at her own home. As a result, the visits
(scheduled between 10 a.m. Mondays and 6 p.m. Tuesdays) usually took
place at the home of friends.

Upon learning that those friends were lesbians themselves, Judge
Parsons changed the visitation order in August 1996 to confine the
visits solely to Bottoms's home and nowhere else. In addition,
Parsons further restricted Wade's access by barring any and all
contact she had with Tyler. (The visitation calendar was also
modified to every other weekend from 6 p.m. Fridays to 5 p.m.
Sundays.)

Bottoms is seeking to remove the homebound restriction, and the
portion barring any contact between Tyler and April. She is also
seeking more time with Tyler, including on Mother's Day and other
holidays, and the right to talk to Tyler's teachers so that she can
be more involved in her son's schooling.

The ACLU, which presented oral argument before the Virginia Court
of Appeals, said that Judge Parsons had violated the equal protection
guarantee of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against Bottoms
because of her sexual orientation. The ACLU also argued that Parsons
order was based on false assumptions about lesbian mothers -- a point
affirmed earlier by testimony from a clinical psychologist who
testified that the current visitation arrangement could negatively
affect Tyler and his relationship with his mother.

"This is simply a case about a family trying to stay together,"
said Matt Coles, director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights
Project. "The question before the court is whether a family should be
further torn apart because the mother is a lesbian, or whether the
family bonds should be protected. I hope this court will prize family
ties over anti-gay lies."

Lawyers for Sharon Bottoms are Matt Coles and Michael Adams of the
national ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project; Mary Bauer of the
ACLU of Virginia; and Donald K. Butler and Player B. Michelsen from
the Richmond-based firm of Morano, Colan & Butler, who are both
serving as cooperating attorneys for the ACLU of Virginia.